That's the billion dollar question. Is it 3 day battery life, computational photography, high-end gaming, wireless charging, or any of the other unique technologies or applications in development? Maybe it's how it interacts with your other electronic devices or the content it allows access to. In reality, it is likely different for every consumer, which makes differentiation such a difficult challenge.

There are so many different models of tablet coming out every year from so many different brands. I am happy to see the variety as well as competition. Screen resolution and price are so far the key selling factors. There are minor features here and there. Yet, nothing stands out. I wonder what drives consumers to choose one from the other. What can be the killer feature that consumer can't live w/o?

I agree that other technology providers, sush as Amazon, could add additional value to this or any other platform in the same way they could add value to Microsoft's Surface or Qualcomm's Toq smart watch. I would suspect that you are likely to see platforms either rebranded or at least very similar to all these platforms in the future if the major OEMs see value in the design and/or technologies incorporated into the platforms. The purpose of many of these platforms from the hardware and software technology providers is to showcase the technology. Unfortunately, many of the leading OEMs design for the broadest possible audience, which leads to little differentiation and hesitancy to adopt new technologies.

This isn't Nvidia's first step into mobile gaming. I'm really curious to hear how the other devices are being received. I realize they are at a higher price point but I don't even really know if they are available on the market. This seems to have much more potential based on price but I have a hard time seeing hardcore gamers even bothering.

@ Jim, I dont know which response you refer to. In any case, you have a research company and I expect a research report from you or atleast that quality. This article looks like either written by Nvidia PR or you slacked on your work. Which one is it? Where is the research here?

@p-g: I agree. I think the real business model here is Amazon using the Kindle as a loss leader to sell books/media/etc. Google using Nexus as a loss leader to get more eyeballs on its services and do analytics on buying pattens in Google Play etc.

Apple bucks the model I think making a little change on iTunes to make its margins on its high end tabs and phones.

Samsung is in the middle ekeing out some profits on mass volumes.

I don't see a viable Nvidia biz here unless it is a loss leader getting people to adopt its chips. Unfortunately I dont see much of a biz long term for HTC, Asus etc either except as ODMs.

I agree margins on hardware is very low right now. But the main market seems to be apps market which bring constant revenue down the lane. This is exactly what Amazon started with its low cost tablet. There was very little margin.

Not in the minds of consumers. Consumer pick and choose what features and functions are most important. In many cases, the difference between the two devices was a generational gap as to what features were more important. It's only us geeks that really compare the devices at a tech level.

I'm thinking when you compare Samsung and HTC its just a matter of brute force of a much bigger Samsung supply chain thanks to size and vertical integration. Samsung gets lower BoM based on more internally supplied components. Same box to the consumer more or less.